Season 14 • Episode 1065

A New Test for Lyme Disease, Developed by High Schoolers

Jun 17, 2026

11:51

Genetics & Genomics Gene Therapy Tick-Borne Diseases Public Health

Episode Description

About this episode:

A group of students from suburban Atlanta has developed a new method for detecting Lyme disease using the gene-editing tool CRISPR. In this episode: why there's such a desperate need for a new diagnostic, how the students' model works, and why it's so promising for the treatment of Lyme and other diseases.

Guest:

Nicole Baumgarth, PhD, DVM, is Bloomberg Distinguished Professor in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology and the director of the Lyme and Tickborne Disease Research and Education Institute at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Sankalp Yeleti is a recent graduate of Lambert High School and a rising freshman at New York University, where he plans to study biomolecular science.

Host:

Lindsay Smith Rogers, MA, is the producer of the Public Health On Call podcast, an editor for Expert Insights, and the director of content strategy for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Show links and related content:

Teens may have come up with a new way to detect, treat Lyme disease using CRISPR gene editing—CBS News
Lancet—Lambert iGEM 2025

Transcript information:

Looking for episode transcripts? Open our podcast on the Apple Podcasts app (desktop or mobile) or the Spotify mobile app to access an auto-generated transcript of any episode. Closed captioning is also available for every episode on our YouTube channel.

Have a question about something you heard? Looking for a transcript? Want to suggest a topic or guest? Contact us via email or visit our website.